Short n' Sweet Review

The reason this worked when a dozen similar records did not is the voice, and not the singing voice but the writing one. Carpenter is funny on purpose, the punchlines land on the beat, and she is willing to be the least dignified person in her own song, which almost nobody at this level of the charts will do. Espresso is the hit and Please Please Please is the better song, and the album keeps changing costume around them without ever losing the thread.

Critics were broadly warm and the praise was consistent: sharp, filthy, and more cohesive than a record with four producers has any right to be. The pushback was just as consistent. Outside the singles the melodies are competent rather than memorable, the arrangements borrow more than they invent, and a couple of tracks in the back half are held up almost entirely by one good line. It is a very well made pop album with genuinely great moments and no ambition beyond being liked, which is a compliment and a ceiling in the same sentence.